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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29634138">Coincidence?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lion_owl/pseuds/Lion_owl'>Lion_owl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Episode: s11e06 Demons of the Punjab, Gen, Introspection, Umbreen POV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:28:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>821</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29634138</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lion_owl/pseuds/Lion_owl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Throughout the years, Umbreen ponders...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Yasmin Khan &amp; Umbreen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Coincidence?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've had this idea ever since this episode aired, and now i've finally written it! even if i did so when i should have been sleeping... but i love Umbreen so much and i'm very glad to finally get this on paper.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>People would have thought her to be mad if she had ever admitted it, but it’s been a good few years now since Umbreen became convinced that time travel was, in fact, a real thing, not confined to works of fiction as was believed by most people.</p>
<p>All those years ago, she had initially thought nothing of the strange party of four who had shown up unannounced, the day before her first wedding.</p>
<p>Other than that they were very strange, of course.</p>
<p>She’d thought very little of Yaz claiming to be her family and then reeling off a list of removals, other than to hope distant uncle Malik wasn’t also planning to show up at what was <em>supposed </em>to be a quiet event.</p>
<p>Perhaps she’d wondered why Yaz didn’t seem all that surprised that Umbreen planned to visit Sheffield one day, but in that moment she had had far too much else on her mind to dwell on it.</p>
<p>But she never forgot any of them: not Yaz, not the Doctor, not Ryan or Graham.</p>
<p>She didn’t think of them often. But when she did, she thought of them with fondness, despite how terribly that day had ended.</p>
<p>When Najia, heavily pregnant, told her that she and Hakim were going to name their daughter Yasmin…</p>
<p>Umbreen had done a double take.</p>
<p>“Don’t you like the name?” Najia had asked, sounding a little disappointed.</p>
<p>“No, no, it’s a lovely name,” Umbreen had reassured her. “I was just remembering a Yasmin I knew long ago.”</p>
<p>It was a coincidence, of course.</p>
<p>It had to be.</p>
<p>She had never told Najia that story. She’d never told <em>anyone</em>.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t as if her unborn granddaughter could have been at her wedding, that was impossible.</p>
<p>Or so Umbreen had told herself.</p>
<p>It was a coincidence, and she put it to the back of her mind.</p>
<p>Hakim later told her why they had chosen the name, and it had nothing to do with four strangers who had fought off demons so long ago…</p>
<p>She did wonder where they were, now. If they were out there somewhere, still fighting off demons; if they were happy.</p>
<p>Yaz – Yasmin’s nickname, coincidentally – was eight years old, the first time she resembled the other, adult Yaz.</p>
<p>She’d said something – Umbreen can’t even remember what, now, all she remembers is she was so shocked – and the determined, slightly sad expression on Yaz’s face… it was uncanny.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Najia had answered Yaz before Umbreen had had to think of something to say, and the issue was quickly resolved. Satisfied, Yaz had skipped off to play with Sonya.</p>
<p>After that, the resemblance between them cropped up more and more often, growing only more striking the older Yaz got.</p>
<p>She couldn’t help it, and Najia berated her for it, but Yasmin became her favourite.</p>
<p>As time went on, Umbreen became less and less able to believe that all this was a coincidence.</p>
<p>How could it be?</p>
<p>She didn’t have an explanation, but she was determine to find one. Perhaps one day she’d ask Yaz about it.</p>
<p>But still, she didn’t yet feel up to telling her family the story of Prem, her first love; of their wonderful and disastrous wedding.</p>
<p>She bragged often of being the first woman married in Pakistan, but her family never seemed to question the fact that the dates – she’d married Najia’s dad in nineteen fifty-three – didn’t seem to match up with her claim.</p>
<p>Still, she wondered if Yaz knew the truth. If it was somehow possible they were the same person.</p>
<p>One day when Yaz is twenty, Umbreen decides to tentatively test her theory.</p>
<p>She brings a box of old mementos with her to Najia’s flat, and gives them something each.</p>
<p>To Yaz, she gives Prem’s broken watch.</p>
<p>Hakim offers to get it fixed, and she immediately tells him it must never be fixed.</p>
<p>If Yaz recognises it, she shows no sign, and she begs to be told the story. Umbreen hesitates.</p>
<p>The next morning, Yaz drives Umbreen home, and Umbreen asks her if she has any plans for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>Yaz tells her she’s going to meet up with three friends, says they might go off on a bit of an adventure or several.</p>
<p>Umbreen wishes she could go back to those two days in nineteen forty-seven, be a fly on the wall and pay much closer attention to Yaz’s reactions to everything.</p>
<p>Several days later, Umbreen is having dinner with her family again and Yaz takes her aside afterwards.</p>
<p>She seems a little shaken up, and has a terribly-drawn mehndi pattern on her hands.</p>
<p>Umbreen wonders if maybe she should try and convince Yaz to bring these three friends of hers round to visit when Umbreen is also over at the Khan flat.</p>
<p>But if those friends <em>do</em> turn out to be Ryan, Graham and the Doctor…</p>
<p>Umbreen doesn’t know whether she could take it.</p>
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